Price increases and shortages

[Rhodie Ranch]

I've been dehydrating like mad. Trying my hand at butternut squash.

 

[heirloomgal]

I've finally begun to seriously stock up with non-perishables. Probably a couple hundred pounds of dried beans, dried peas, bags and bags of rice, jumbo cans of tomatoes, many types of flour, assortment of nuts, huge bucket of coconut oil. Many jugs of pink salt, some sugar, vinegar jugs, brown rice pastas. Will probably look out for a good deal on olive oil or some other good fats next. Got a generator as well.

 

[baymule]

I've finally begun to seriously stock up with non-perishables. Probably a couple hundred pounds of dried beans, dried peas, bags and bags of rice, jumbo cans of tomatoes, many types of flour, assortment of nuts, huge bucket of coconut oil. Many jugs of pink salt, some sugar, vinegar jugs, brown rice pastas. Will probably look out for a good deal on olive oil or some other good fats next. Got a generator as well.

I lived in hurricane country for most of my life. I can tell you from experience that a generator is no good unless you have gasoline stocked up too-and that is really a last minute thing since you can't really store gasoline for very long. Basically, if your power is off, then so is the gas station. Plus they run out of gasoline, because everyone is filling up their vehicles.

I ran only the refrigerator, freezer and a fan. The longest I've ever been out of power was 3 weeks. Make sure you get the oil for that generator also. It will run out of oil and shut down, a safety thing that keeps the engine from burning up. When the gas stations get back up and running, they often have restricted power and can't use credit cards, so have cash on hand too. Don't wait until the power goes out to figure out how to use the generator and most of all, KEEP IT OUTSIDE! Have heavy duty extension cords handy too. You may have to run the refrigerator a couple of hours, then switch to the freezer, depending on the size of your generator. Have a no power weekend and try everything out.

Tac lights are awesome! I keep mine in a cabinet that I can walk to in total darkness, feel around and get them turned on. Practice that a time or two to make sure you can find them in the dark. LOL

Amazon.com : tac light

www.amazon.com

A gas grill with propane tanks (keep a couple extras) sure make life easier too. I wish I had the kind with a burner on the side. If you get one, get the burner on the side and make sure you have a camp type coffee pot!

If water is an issue, no power in an area can mean that the city water pumps won't work either. I always bought new big plastic garbage cans, put them on the porch, filled with water and duct taped the lids down. Currently, I live 2 houses away from the community water well, but if there is no power to pump the water, it won't take long for the big tank to run dry. So if no power, better fill up fast. Fill up all big kitchen pots so you can cook. Switch to paper plates, cups etc. 5 gallon buckets in the bathtub and a coffee can of water poured directly in the toilet will flush it down. Men can go pee on trees outside. LOL

 

[Phaedra]

Tac lights are awesome! I keep mine in a cabinet that I can walk to in total darkness, feel around and get them turned on. Practice that a time or two to make sure you can find them in the dark. LOL

Amazon.com : tac light

www.amazon.com

Thanks Bay, I immediately ordered 2

 

[Ridgerunner]

I lived in hurricane country for most of my life. I can tell you from experience that a generator is no good unless you have gasoline stocked up too-and that is really a last minute thing since you can't really store gasoline for very long. Basically, if your power is off, then so is the gas station. Plus they run out of gasoline, because everyone is filling up their vehicles.

Louisiana just allowed gas stations to use a generator to power their pumps if the electricity is off. Before they were not allowed a generator because of the fire hazard. As if people that live in hurricane country can't figure out how to run a generator. They were also able to get some gas trucks to several of the stations to refill their tanks. Hurricane Ida was still an awful mess but away from the hardest hit areas it wasn't quite as bad as many hurricanes have been as far as gas goes. There were still long lines, hours long, and people that cut the line took their life in their own hands. They had to station cops at the stations that had gas to stop the gassholes from trying to break line and starting a riot. There is nothing nice about a major hurricane, Some areas were just totally devastated, still are. But just allowing gas stations to run a generator in an emergency situation helped a little. Not just to power vehicles but to run generators.

Many vehicles now have anti-siphon devices. Don't count on being able to siphon gas out of a vehicle to run a generator or a different vehicle unless you know you can. I made that mistake. I topped off our second vehicle before Ida, thinking it was a gas reservoir for the generator. Nope, not without draining the gas tank and I was not prepared to do that. I wasn't that desperate.

My generator is also gas. Bay is right, it is worthless without gas. We are looking at getting a whole-house generator that runs on natural gas. Natural gas lines are buried so they usually survive, it's a pretty reliable fuel source down here. If you have a propane tank, many people in the country do for heat, you can set up a generator to run off of that. I don't mean a can of propane you use for camping or a backyard grill. I mean a TANK, hundreds of gallons. For some people a diesel generator might be the best choice.

Got a generator as well.

Not sure what emergency you got the generator to prepare for or what you plan to power. How long do you expect power to be out? Just things to think about. You are probably not that worried about A/C but refrigerators/freezers are important. If you are on a well so is powering that water pump. Where you are you are not worried about hurricanes but ice storms and other winter weather can hit hard. Power grids can go down for many different reasons.

Good luck, hope you don't have to use it. But crank it on a regular basis and run it a bit just so you can crank it when you need to.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I am spending all my money on firewood at the moment and then I guess I will go back to stocking up but this time I am not doing it like before. I stocked up for Y2k and then later some other virus, and then there was going to be a rice shortage, and always some crisis. I would buy a bunch of stuff and most of it if I had to live on it I would have died of scurvy or something. If I stock up on flour then I am going to make sure I have ingredients to make things out of flour. Beans and rice I always have, but I am going to get more. I am going to turn DD's closet and part of her room into storage. Put shelves. It is right off the kitchen, so I can go get stuff I need really easy. I need to stock up on spices. This time, I am making it a way of life. Stock and rotate and try to work up to a year, if there is even time now to do that. My brother's birthday is next month and DD and I think a Costco membership would be a good present. DS thinks he would never use it, but he told me he is going to stock up and when my brother says ANYTHING about buying extra it is a shock.
I said stock up on what kind of food and he said anything you can eat. I think he would enjoy going to Costco because of all the organic stuff in there. He was talking about all the shortages of food and I said well I can start a garden early and he said you will need seeds. I thought and you will need a tiller or get ready for some major work out there turning all those weeds in. LOLLLLLLLLLL

I know 2 families who bought freeze dryers. One family hunt and have chickens and buying a lot of bulk food. The other has been canning, buying everything they can, even built a secret hiding place in the wall for can goods behind a bookshelf. If DH was here then he would be doing the same.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

If you're building a house, forget it. Romex is up 300% (because of the lack of resin, due to the Texas freeze, which is used to coat the Romex). Lumber is going up again. Windows and the raw material, Glass, is in short supply. Electrical breakers, boxes, switches, etc are vaporware.

We found the last twelve pack at a local ACE for a single gang white wall switch. We snatched it up. L and HD have NONE.

We bought a box of Alex fast dry caulk at L cus they hardly had any. Went to HD and there were lots. This was two weeks ago. Now there are very few left there at HD. Weird...

 

[heirloomgal]

I lived in hurricane country for most of my life. I can tell you from experience that a generator is no good unless you have gasoline stocked up too-and that is really a last minute thing since you can't really store gasoline for very long. Basically, if your power is off, then so is the gas station. Plus they run out of gasoline, because everyone is filling up their vehicles.

I ran only the refrigerator, freezer and a fan. The longest I've ever been out of power was 3 weeks. Make sure you get the oil for that generator also. It will run out of oil and shut down, a safety thing that keeps the engine from burning up. When the gas stations get back up and running, they often have restricted power and can't use credit cards, so have cash on hand too. Don't wait until the power goes out to figure out how to use the generator and most of all, KEEP IT OUTSIDE! Have heavy duty extension cords handy too. You may have to run the refrigerator a couple of hours, then switch to the freezer, depending on the size of your generator. Have a no power weekend and try everything out.

Tac lights are awesome! I keep mine in a cabinet that I can walk to in total darkness, feel around and get them turned on. Practice that a time or two to make sure you can find them in the dark. LOL

Amazon.com : tac light

www.amazon.com

A gas grill with propane tanks (keep a couple extras) sure make life easier too. I wish I had the kind with a burner on the side. If you get one, get the burner on the side and make sure you have a camp type coffee pot!

If water is an issue, no power in an area can mean that the city water pumps won't work either. I always bought new big plastic garbage cans, put them on the porch, filled with water and duct taped the lids down. Currently, I live 2 houses away from the community water well, but if there is no power to pump the water, it won't take long for the big tank to run dry. So if no power, better fill up fast. Fill up all big kitchen pots so you can cook. Switch to paper plates, cups etc. 5 gallon buckets in the bathtub and a coffee can of water poured directly in the toilet will flush it down. Men can go pee on trees outside. LOL

Thank yo so much @baymule . This is the kind of info you just can't get from books or by googling. The gasoline issue is certainly a challenge. Did you experience hurricane events when you were little too? It is sort of amazing to me (coming from a place where hurricanes never happen) that you've lived through things like that so much to have that kind of experience you can share. They must be very scary.

 

[heirloomgal]

There were still long lines, hours long, and people that cut the line took their life in their own hands. They had to station cops at the stations that had gas to stop the gassholes from trying to break line and starting a riot

That is wild. I was just watching with DD the other day a program about Venezuela, and the gas lines they have there. I didn't know that gas used to be free there, and it almost continues to be so today (minimal cost) but the lines are days, or even a week long. There is a whole economy that's sprung up regarding wait lines, hiring people to do it for you, bribing guards stationed there etc.

 

[baymule]

I can remember as a kid, maybe 3rd grade, going out to play in the yard as the eye of the hurricane passed over us. It was calm, still and quiet. When the winds
picked back up, I went back in the house.

Keeping a stock of items needed for after a hurricane is just a way of life along the coastal areas. I have never been scared during a hurricane. #1 NEVER live in a low spot. Never. No beach house for me! LOL Also we can get heavy rains at times and low areas flood.

Only got serious damage from a hurricane one time, a 100 year old oak tree fell on the house. That was from Hurricane Ike. Galveston Island and Houston took a direct hit and it did a lot of damage. A friend of ours had a beach house on Crystal Beach on the Boliver Peninsula, we used to go stay for a week on the beach. Ike leveled the whole peninsula.

Hurricane Ike - Bolivar Peninsula Damage

www.weather.gov